DRIVERS' WAGES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 8

DRIVERS' WAGES

THE RAILWAY SERVICE

(To the Editor.)

Sir,— Perhaps the Minister of Rail-1: ways is wise to avoid endeavouring to explain how the Department's competition in the carrying business is fair, as requested in previous letters to you, judging by the statement made in Thursday's "Post" by the General Manager. Mr. Mackley gives a schedule of hourly rates paid to lorry drivers as follows: —Motors up to 2 tons: Carriers, award rates 2s 0.82 d, Railway rates 2s 2.4 d; over 2 and up to 4 tons, award rates 2s 1.5 d, Railway rates 2s 2.4 d. The manager adds: "The Railway Department has no vehicles in Wellington exceeding a capacity of, four tons," but appears to be unaware that the award classes are based not on capacity alone, but on combined weight of vehicle and maximum load, as follows:—Lorry and load combined, 2 to 4 tons, minimum wage £4 13s 6d per week; 4 to 51 tons, £4 16s; s>i to 10 tons, £5; over 10, £5 3s. Moreover, by introducing "hourly rates," Mr. Mackley passes over the fact that whereas the Department in 1931 paid a guaranteed minimum wage of £4 16s a week, it is now paying £4 Bs. Apparently the Department's men are working 40 hours, since 2s 2.4 d for 40 hours gives £4 Bs, in which case the Government is penalising its employees for getting the 40-hour week, although if governed by the award, under the "follow the house" clause it would be prevented from doing this. However, I submit Mr. Mackley's schedule, corrected to the actual award classes of vehicles, is as follows:—Two tons to 4 tons, award 2s 1.5 d, Railway 2s 2.4 d; 4 tons to 51 tons, award 2s 2.2 d, Railway 2s 2.4 d; 5J tons to 10 tons, award 2s 3.27 d, Railway 2s 2.4 d; over 10 tons, award 2s 4.1 d, Railway 2s 2.4 d. Mr. Mackley's definite statement that "the present hourly rate of lorry drivers employed by the Railway Department i:3 higher than the existing award rates applying to drivers of motor vehicles of similar type to those used by the Department" is therefore (no doubt inadvertently) misleading.—l am, etc., MASTER CARRIER. Mr. T. C. Allenby, secretary of the New Zealand Drivers' Federation, made the following statement on the subject:— "Mr. Mackley is.under a misapprehension as to the basis on which wages stipulated by the Drivers' Award are based. He refers to the carrying capacity of the vehicle, whereas under the Drivers' Award the wages are fixed on the combined weight of the vehicle and the load it carries. "Wages of the railway drivers are £4 8s irrespective of1 the class of vehicle they drive, whereas under the Drivers' Award the ,wages vary from £4 11s to £5 3s per week, based on the combined weight of vehicle and load. Mr. Mackley confuses the hourly rates with the weekly rates. Under the award the wages are for a 44-hour week, with the proviso that if the driver works less than the 44 hours, the wages paid for the 44-hour week, that is, the weekly wages fixed by the award, shall not be reduced. This means that a considerable number of drivers are working less than 40 hours under the award, but receiving wages of from £4 11s to £5 3s per week according to the class of vehicle driven. Over 80 per cent, of the vehicles owned by the Railway Department have a combined weight and carrying capacity of over four tons, and therefore the drivers of these vehicles, if they were receiving the equivalent of award rates, as stated by Mr. Mackley, would be receiving £4 16s or £5 per week, in accordance with the axle weights.

In commenting upon the communications of "Master Carrier" and Mr. T. C. Allenby. secretary of the New Zealand Drivers' Federation, Mr. G. H. Mackley, General Manager of Railways, states that the point at issue was the alleged ability of the Department to trader-quote other carriers for household removal business owing to the wages of lorry-drivers employed by the Railway Department being less than those paid. by private carriers. The matter of what is known in the Department as "anomalies" in the rates of pay as prevailing in 1931 and the present time is a service question as between the men concerned and the Department. This is now being discussed with the staff organisations in accordance with the understandings arrived at and arrangements made between the Minister of Railways and the representatives of the men when the 40-hour week was introduced. The wages of the Department's lorrydrivers are standardised on the basis of a 40-hour week, and if, in the net result, the hourly rates are somewhat lower than those paid by private carriers who work a 40-hour week, this difference is so slight that, in itself, it does not afford a margin sufficient to enable the Department to underquote the private carrier for the transport involved in shifting any particular household by lorry from house to station or vice versa."